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General discussion

WHAT DOES TOO MANY PROCESSES MEAN?

by NO9TO5 Sep 21, 2008 2:52AM PDT

Hello Everyone,

I have Vista and if you go into Task Manager and it says you have 78 processes running, what does that mean?

Someone told me if you have too many that means you have a virus,

I usually have about 75-80 running

There is a button where you can end each process, can't I just do that?

I hope I am making sense in my question

Thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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No such thing

by Jimmy Greystone Sep 21, 2008 3:15AM PDT

There's no such thing as too many processes, there's only having errant and/or unwanted processes.

The number of processes you have running depends entirely on the programs you have running. 75-80 might be excessive, and it might also be perfectly normal. Every system will be different due to the number of programs the user has running. Having more than a specific number of processes is NOT necessarily the result of a virus and/or malware.

If you're concerned however, type in the name of each process into Google and see what comes up.

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Unless You Know What They Are, Don't Just End Processes

by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Sep 21, 2008 1:34PM PDT

Although many brand name computers have running processes that are unnecessary, don't stop them unless you know which ones aren't required. .

For a list of some of those unneeded processes, click on the link below and check out the options in the chart for eliminating unnecessary "Services" in Vista. (The "Safe" column options are generally OK to start with.) Eliminating any unneeded "Services" and Programs running in the background will reduce that list of processes you have running.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

Hope this helps.

Grif

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